Mother Manic
by narutogoddess
Summary: Lee became a single father when his wife was diagnosed with a metal illness and declared incapable of caring for herself and their son, Metaru. Neji and Tenten help out the best they can, but it's hard to care for a toddler when they have the Hyuga elders constantly pressuring them to either get married and have their own kids or break up. NejiTen, LeeXOC Metaru (AKA Metal Lee)


**A/N: I'm not sure how far I'm going to get with this fic, just like everything else I try writing. I'm not even sure if this will be good, but I'm gonna try! Enjoy, drop a review, give me some constructive criticism, and feel free to share your idea of where you'd like this story to go! XOXO**

Chapter 1

The day Metaru was born was the best day of Lee's life. He and his wife of eleven months were thrilled to finally meet the baby she'd be carrying for what seemed like ever. Neji, Tenten, and Gai Sensei were not surprised in the least that Lee was the first one to get married after Hinata and Naruto, however, they were the only ones that knew Lee was even seeing someone.

Shortly before the war, Lee met a beautiful girl while travelling back and forth between the Leaf and Sand with Shikamaru and Temari. She didn't have a village of her own. She had lived a very nomadic lifestyle with her mother until she passed away from an untreated heart condition.

Rika was always a little unusual, but everyone that knew her assumed that that was because she hadn't had structure growing up. Rika and her mother only ever stayed in one place for a few weeks, then moved onto the next place. She never had any friends, or learned how to talk to people respectively. Lee didn't mind, her found it adorable. At first, Lee's confidence made Rika uncomfortable. She grew to love that about him.

The moment Lee stopped showing up to early morning training session with his team, they knew something was up. Lee had never missed a chance to train, and it worried Tenten. Gai sensei knew that Lee was spending most of his time with Rika those days, but due to Lee's request, he kept it to himself. Neji and Tenten didn't find out about her until late one afternoon, after they had spent all morning training, they witnessed them sharing a kiss in the park. Once they got over the shock, Tenten tried to run after him and demand what was up, but Neji held her back. "It's none of our business," he told her.

She disagreed, but left it at that.

The next day, Lee showed up to training with Rika and introduced her as his girlfriend. He asked his friends to keep the information to themselves until after the war was over, and they did, but it wasn't until Lee and Rika became engaged, three years after the war ended that the rest of the village found out about their relationship.

From the moment they met, Neji didn't like her and Rika didn't like him. He sensed that there was something off about her, but he just couldn't figure out what. She thought that Neji was too cold and didn't understand why Lee considered him his best friend and rival, or what Tenten saw in him.

When Rika got pregnant, Lee, Tenten and Gai were so excited. Neji was too, but he would never admit that to anyone. That was when they began to notice a change in Rika's personality. At first, Lee thought that she was only acting crazy because she was pregnant and her hormones were raging, but once Metaru was born, she didn't seem to be getting any better. She would leave him unattended for hours. Lee would come home to him crying and her just watching him or ignoring him completely while she did something else. The worst was when Lee came home after guest lecturing at the academy to an unusually quiet house. Rika was organizing the kitchen cupboards, but Metaru was nowhere to be seen.

"Is Metaru asleep?" Lee asked.

"No, he's taking a bath."

He stared at her while his brain registered what Rika was saying. Then rushed to the bathroom to find Metaru in the bathtub with the water running high. He quickly pulled the baby out from under the water, turned off the faucet, wrapped him in a towel and tried to calm the screaming child. After that, Lee didn't want to leave her alone with Metaru, so Tenten began coming over when Lee needed to be out of the house.

She and Neji knew what had happened, and they kept on telling him that she needed professional help, but he didn't want to hear it, so they helped out the best they could. To use Tenten's words, "Lee finally got his head out of his ass" when Rika started to run around the house screaming that Metaru was trying to kill her and she attacked the toddler with a kitchen knife. Lee managed to calm her enough to take her to the hospital. Lady Tsunade concluded that Rika had a mental disorder, but her symptoms were all over the place and no doctor could place a name on her disorder. Sakura speculated that it was some form of schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder.

Lee made the tough decision that Rika was incapable of caring for herself and having her around was a danger to the baby and she needed to be hospitalized. He couldn't ask his friends to continue caring for his wife and child while he was away, but Tenten insisted that whenever Lee had to go on a mission, and she or Neji did not, that they would take care of Metaru. That made Lee's life a lot easier, and he didn't have to get a babysitter for long periods of time then.

At Neji and Tenten's house, Metaru had his own room. It only made sense that he had a place of his own if he was going to be spending so much time there. Overtime Tenten became his mother figure. He knew his real mother, he visited her all the time, but she couldn't care for him like Tenten did. Lee was so grateful.

Tenten tried to take Metaru to see his mom as often as possible. Lee appreciated it, Metaru appreciated it, and Rika was just glad to see her son, but she didn't like that Metaru listened to Tenten over her, and played better with Tenten. Rika's anger over that had caused multiple visits with her son to be cut short, which only upset her more and led to her doctors to temporarily take away her visitation rights.

Neji didn't think it was right for Tenten to continue taking Metaru to see his mother when her outbursts were such a common thing while Tenten was around, but she ignored her boyfriend's request and continued to bring Metaru to the mental hospital for visits. "He needs a relationship with his mother," she would tell Neji.

Then he would argue that Rika only acted up while she was around, which only made Tenten angry and put her in the mood to spite. Lee assured her that it was okay for her to continue taking Metaru for visits because Rika acted up even when Tenten wasn't around. It wasn't Tenten that was the problem, it was his wife's mentality.


End file.
